[Jenny1]

Hi,

I started out doing domestic and have a few commercial contracts.  I'd now like to get more commercial work and was wondering what are the most effective ways of getting this?  I've thought about sending out letters, phoning offices and calling in in person but was wondering what works best.

Thanks in advance.

[wilclean]

I've sent out a letter to all the companies I clean for saying that I've started a Referrals scheme where by for every companie they introduce me to and help win the contract for they get £10-£20 depending on the size of the contract. The letters were sent last week and I've all ready been introduced to a new companie by one of my clients  . sending letters, phoning businesses, even calling in and asking to speak to some one is another way. You'll find calling in to businesses and asking to speak to some one in charge of contracting hard as you come up with a brick wall every time - THE SECRETARY. You can always try e-mail as well as thats another good way of contact.

Paul

[Adam P]

when you say email, do you mean you simply google local small business, find contact email, then say hi we do cleaning for offices etc, here is contact number? if so surely this is classed as spam and also would have a very low success rate as the chances of getting a local office that is looking for a new cleaning company is slim?

[cml]

Hi

You already have some commercial contracts and it about exploring what techniques you used to obtain these.  Meaning the method you may have used to obtained a Domestic contract may have been different to the one you used to secure your Commercial contract.

Start by deciding on what Commercial industry you are trying to target and then set about a driven campaign.  This could be in the form of flyers, letters, emails etc., whatever method you use ( and there are many).  The difficulty is the message or content of your introductory letter or  flyer  that needs to be persuasive.  This has to be right and strike a cord with your intended customer, therefore by doing research and finding out what your customer needs is a start.  After that don't wait for the campaign to work for you, you drive it, i.e.  you contact the client, visit the client  what ever form you take to get a result or foot in the door.

There is nothing wrong with a 'Scattered Gun' or 'Spam' approach to marketing but yes it is time consuming, can be costly if no budget is set and can have a low success rate if not driven and monitored.  This is the part of the business that requires a lot of effort and is so often overlooked and can leave you feeling like your efforts are wasted.

REMEBER - It's only wasted if you are WAITING FOR A RESPONSE rather than DRIVING THE RESPONSE!!!!!!!!!

I hope this helps